AP Computer Science Principles covers many topics including the Internet, Big Data and Privacy, and Programming and Algorithms. It is more of an overview of the internet and technology and how all of it works together. Sounds scary, but it is a great introductory course for an AP class. . .and also counts as a math or science credit.
We are learning about binary numbers and how to convert them back to decimal.
We registered with AP classroom and took a quiz. We started some work on code.org learning about how images are coded.
This week we are learning about compressing data - Lossless vs Lossy.
We finished up unit 1 this week and will start on learning how the internet works.
This week we are learning how the internet works. How does it send pictures, emails, and talk to other computers?
Now it is time to learn how apps are designed and how they work. We will look at several and start our design process.
We are learning how computers think - with AND &&, OR ||, and NOT !. We will use these in coding our apps this week.
We ill implement boolean values into an app and let the computer make decision making progress.
We will use if/else statements to write code for some apps we are creating.
2 more weeks until finals for the semester. This week we will talk about correlation and causation. . .and if they are truly related.
This week we are starting our unit on lists. . .Lists of data. . .I know with semester exams starting next week - we will have to review this content a little in January after the break. This week we'll just get our feet wet.
Semester Exams this week.
Introduction to loops this week - more specifically - for loops. We will add the code to one of our apps.
We will build our loop app this week and exam it with a rubric. This will give the students practice for when they build their apps in March.
Students practice traversing lists, filtering and reducing lists, and using the data import tools. Along the way students develop debugging practices with traversals.
We finished our unit and this week we will code a more complicated weather app together in class.
Our final project for this unit is to code - with a partner - an app of their creation. They have a rubric to follow which includes 3 screens, a list of data of their choice and of course - no errors. I'll be available to help them and they will follow up with a written response to their app - very similar to their actual app they will code in March for their AP exam. Unfortunately, we missed several days to snow so we pushed out this activity.
We are finishing our 3 screen app this week. . .except we have ACT testing for 11th graders. I will work on the students individually to make sure their app works correctly. This would be a good week for some of them to catch up on any missing work as more than half my class will be taking the ACT test.
This week our unit introduces parameters, return, and libraries. We will practice creating some apps that use return values.
